MUSIC REVIEW: An environmental study, in music and images

The four musicians of the contemporary string quartet, ETHEL, spoke nary a one during their performance at the Historic Asolo Theatre. They took the stage, in silence and dim lighting, in front of a large projection screen and finished some 80-minutes later with nothing more than a modest bow.

But some things speak louder than words. The combination of their beautiful yet edgy music and a stream of projected images taken from the archives of an Environmental Protection Agency photographic initiative from the 1970s, was more powerful and thought-provoking than any rant about pollution or global warming could ever be.

In 1971, the EPA commissioned more than 70 photographers to fan out across the country, capturing Americans in everyday life and their sometimes fraught relationship to the nation's landscape. "Project Documerica" resulted in more than 20,000 photographs, largely forgotten until recently digitized, and they form the backdrop for this unusual concert.

The members of ETHEL — Ralph Farris (viola), Dorothy Lawson (cello), Kip Jones (violin) and Corin Lee (violin) — have a history of shining a light on environmental issues. Their last collaboration at The Ringling, with musician Robert Mirabal, had an agricultural slant, looking at the cycle of farming in Native American culture.

When they learned of the "Project Documerica" archive, they tapped four composers to write music suitable to Ethel's wide-ranging and cutting edge style that to accompany a a medley of those images, designed by Deborah Johnson. And the result is something that surpasses the best movie score you've ever head.

Sometimes the photographs are played straight, but often they are chopped up, vibrated, overlaid, juxtaposed, variably lit or accompanied by graphics. Some inspire a renewed awe of the beauty and variety of our natural resources — glittering oceans, blooming flowers, towering mesas. Others — cars piled high in a junk yard, darkly sinister coal mines, starkly naked strip mines, churning oil rigs — are deeply disturbing. Together, they provide both a moving memoir of a tumultuous period in our country's history and a disturbing documentation of humans' sometimes wanton destruction of nature.

The musicians, with an eye on small monitors that allow them to time their playing precisely to the images behind them, adjust their volume and playing style to enhance the drama — sawing, plucking, strumming, even stomping — but without any overt "messaging."

The composers' contributions were as variable as the images. Jones' "Shout-out," an upbeat, inviting piece with nods to his favorite composers, kicked things off on a bright, engaging note. Jerod Impichchaahaaha'Tate's "Pisachi (Reveal) incorporated Pueblo Indian melodies and rhythms. "The Simplicity of Life," by Ulysses Owens, Jr., had a meandering melody reminiscent of an Argentine tango and "Into the Liquid," by James Kimo Williams was a rolling stream of harmonic and rhythmic variations set to water images. The three movements of Mary Ellen Childs' dreamy soundscape, "Ephemeral Geometry," closed the set on a contemplative note.

Farris has said that the intent behind this program is to defray the contentious political arguments surrounding climate issues and allow audiences members to individually contemplate their own environmental appreciations and concerns. Without a word, "Documerica" does just that.